>> this is "bbc world news." unding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, newman's own foundation, giving all profits to charity and pursuing the common good for over 30 years, nd union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to know your business, offering specialized solutions and capital to help meet your growth objectives. we offer expertise and tailored solutions for small businesses

and major corporations. hat can we do for you? >> and now "bbc world news." >> this is "bbc world news america." ere in the world is the hunt continues for the man behind national security leaks. anxious south africa awaits words of nelson mandela's condition. doctors put him on the critical list. now appearing at the legendary cotton club he is a world away from the world that thought would bring him stardom.

welcome to our viewers on public television in america and also around the globe. between a travel brochure and novel. after revealing details about two top secret surveillance program in the u.s. he fled to ng kong and was charged with espionage. wikileaks is now involved. gordon starts off our coverage. >> the flight from moscow to havana, packed with journalists, but seat 17a was empty. the plane took off a few minutes late leaving the exact whereabouts of the former spy a mystery and washington still looking for him.

>> what we know is that we are following all of the appropriate legal channels and working with various countries to make sure that rule of law is observed. >> snowden is wanted for spilling secrets about america's national security agency. how they have been gathering data on domestic phone calls and tapping into global communications traffic. he is on the run, a wanted man. he left his job as a contractor in hawaii in june for hong kong where he began to leak documents. this weekend he fled american him.pts to extradite he is being accompanied by this wikileaks works with organization. he said ecquador is where he

wants to go. >> the current status of mr. snowden and miss harrison, both are healthy and safe. i cannot give further information as to their wherebusy or circumstances as just to say the matter is in hand. >> washington is making clear the annoyance with countries that allow snowden to escape their grasp for the moment the former spy disappeared from public view. >> for more on this increasingly intricate case i spoke with a former c.i.a. director. why is it that the u.s. cannot exert more leverage on china and russia? went up against both leaders and neither country is cooperating with the

u.s. >> i think this administration has said they are go to draw a line in the sand. the line disappears. they say something is unacceptable and then they accept it. >> meaning they have lost faith. >> they lost a good deal of the leverage one normally has in government to government to ions by not being able be firm. they just are not. people are starting to get the idea, not only russia and the chinese but that there is no problem standing up to the united states. >> isn't that damaging? >> i think it is. i think it is especially so because neither of the two programs that started all of this are at all illegal. >> you would say that. others would disagree. >> i don't think they have a good case. the first is spying on foreigners who may create

terrorist attacks against the united states. governors have been spying on foreigner -- >> you are saying this is just the latest version of that. >> this is that. the cond is that government has been apparently keeping tabs on so-called metadata which is the phone number that is called and the phone number that does the calling and the duration of the call. virtually exactly the same thing as keeping track of the address on the envelope and return address and not getting into the internal writing in the envelope at all. that has been legal in the united states and approved by the supreme court for 35 years. >> how much damage do you think edward snowden has done? >> it depends on the substance of the documents that he has and has turned over. it can be quite substantial. he has given it to the

terrorists. he has given it indirectly to the world but a set of people that have it are the terrorists. if they decide to plot another attack, their people will be better able to avoid our stopping him because of what snowden has done. >> why is it over a million people in the u.s. have top secret clearance? >> that does seem like a great deal. the structure is quite substantial. >> the security clearly isn't. >> some aspects of the security have work lead over the years. we had two terrible spies. one c.i.a., one f.b.i. on the other hand you in britain had your fill as well. >> that was a while ago. >> it was but there have been one or two more recently. ll countries have this

vulnerability. being an open society u.s. and britain might have them more than societies that are closed. we wouldn't trade that. we want an open society and freedom. but we want security. if you opt, as these two men have, for disclosing our defenses and putting yourself in the place of the congress and president and supreme court. >> what are the options right now for the u.s. government as they try to go after snowden? >> i think that they have to persuade countries that have him now, depending on who that is, or those that might take him on board, ecquador that their lives will not be pleasant. we have to think more like ronald reagan and less like this administration thinks. >> if you were the c.i.a. director, what would be going through your mind? >> first and foremost the duty

for the director would be to understand what happened and to american the intelligence assets over thrth seas to find out what we can find out about where he is what he took with him and the like. >> james, thank you very much for joining us. the south african president says nelson mandela remains critically ill in a hospital. the former president, 94, has been suffering from a lung condition. he says doctors are doing all they can to make him more comfortable. ndrew harding reports now from johannesburg >> messages of support for an increasingly frail man. the 94-year-old already in intensive care took a turn for

the worse this weekend. his condition now described as critical. >> the doctors are doing everything possible to ensure that he will be in comfort. >> perhaps you can give us more information about his condition. >> what i understand is that when a person is critical, the person is critical. i am not a doctor to describe conditions. to say how critical. i think that is the business of the doctor. >> nelson mandela's lungs were damaged during the years he spent in prison for fighting against white minority rule in. old age he battled against repeated infection. his daughters, grandchildren and ex-wife came to visit him in the hospital after a tense fortnight the mood here is increasingly somber. it is hard to convey the hold

that nelson mandela still has on this country's imagination. liberation hero, peacemaker. even if some worry now that outh africa is losing its way. >> he paved the road, the rest is left for us. >> do you think south africa will be ok once he is gone? >> it makes no difference with mandela or without mandela. >> what does he mean to you? >> if it had not been for him i would not be sitting where i am sitting. >> a person that can sacrifice, you know, all of his life and still not be angry is a miracle. >> more messages outside the hospital tonight but no fresh information about the patient within. andrew harding, bbc news, johannesburg. >> a somber time in south africa. in other news a series of car

bomb attacks killed at least 15 people in the iraqi capitol. many more were injured by the explosion which targeted shi'ia areas of the city. sectarian violence killed more than 2,000 people since the beginning of april. the lebanese army seized an area after a second day of fighting. the army detained at least 60 supporters. 16 soldiers have been killed. mostly when an army check checkpoint has been attacked by militants. the president of brazil has proposed holding a referendum on political reform to tackle the grievances by protesters across the country. she proposed earmarking $25 million to improve public

transport. massive street protests have been taking place for more than a week it. has been just over two months since the boston marathon bombing. in two weeks time the surviving suspect will make his initial court appearance. he is accused of planting the bombs that killed three people. his older brother died in a police shootout. the two young men immigrated to the united states as children. a key question for investigators is did the violent surges there play a role in the bomb plot. >> in a moment here in the pitol this man pauses over photos. he is in prison awaiting trial for his alleged role in the boston bombing. she remains convinced he is innocent and intends to return to the state early next month.

it will be her first visit back to a country which she said had taken away her children. >> i cannot ever say that americans are bad. and if i express something like that i want americans to forgive me for saying that. those people are supporting people. i get lots of support from americans. >> but what of her older son that died during the police shootout in boston. there was a chance when he came back last year he fell under the sway of militant islammists? >> no. it made him more become not radical. to turn to the light. to love the light. to love the kids. to raise them up. that is what happened. >> they have suffered for years

from a islammist insurgency. from the authorities' tough response. the one major legal islammist organization is called the union of the just. and senior members say tamerlan was a regular visitor. >> i met him about three times right here. it is absurd to think that he was inclined towards radical ideas, but i guess these types of people are useful to sinister forces. his simple nature likely certain conditions were created that he was pushed on to that path. it was a trap. for the authorities, they say that the boston bombing should alert the rest of the world to the fact that their islammist insurgency is not just a local

difficulty. unfortunately the deputy prime minister said something has to be blown up in the u.s. for people to pay attention. they need to realization we are all dealing with international terrorism and that we have to fight this together. >> in this tough, hard corner of russia, even being suspected of helping militants can carry heavy risks. last month this house was blown up by the authorities for the alleged crime of storing explosives. >> her life, like her house is in ruins. she has a husband in jail and a son she hasn't seen for two years. he is with islammist fighters in the forest. >> i want to tell him that i love him very much. of course he knows how much i am suffering.

>> her teenage son, another young man, caught in violence. tim franks, bbc news. >> you are watching "bbc world news america." -- authorities have arrested two farmers accused of deliberately starting forest fires. smoke is causing record levels of pollution across areas of southeast asia. >> in some places they really are trying to put out the forest fires. but their efforts have little effects. the land continues to smolder. more often the fires are burning out of control, leaving a charred landscape in their

wake. as we drove today we saw dozens of places that looked like this. >> you can see the fire swept through there hours ago and it is smoldering and giving off a lot of heat. the other thing that this is a giant bog. this is a giant sponge. if the fire gets into the soil here it is very difficult to put out. the soil will burn. s it does so it gives off huge amount of smog and releases vast quantities of greenhouse gases. with pollutions smothering towns, angry accusations are flying. is it big business that is burning the land or local farmers? it is not possible villagers would burn their own land. we know the law. we know it is illegal. others i spoke to were more candid about what is going on.

the villagers burn the land all the time this woman told me. they burn it so it can be planted. but this time because of the wind and dry weather it got out of control. it is only because the smoke from the fires have reached malaysia and singapore that the outside world is taking notice at the continued decimation of ndonesia's forest. >> a court in milan sentenced the former prime minister to seven years in jail for having sex with an underage prostitute. tonight he said he was entirely innocent of the charges. he insisted the conviction was politically motivated. the sentence won't come into force yet as he has the right to appeal.

>> for the former italian prime minister this was a humiliation to be found guilty of paying for sex with a 17-year-old underage erotic dancer called ruby. he was not in court to hear the sentence. the try women judges sentenced him to seven years but he is most unlikely to see the inside of a prison. temporary is not a question of being political or apolitical, the sentence out of reality, unrelated to the evidence during the trial. ruby's real name had been invited to the parties in the villa. she also was not in court. ruby has denied having sex with the former italian leader. prosecution alleges she had een paid off with $4.5 million

euros and has been giving evidence in another trial in which three aides, including a v performer, were accused of procuring women for the parties. they deny the charges. one of those that attended the parties was mary. she told me that the evenings were polite dinners and although later she reported admitting having sex with the former premiere. >> a girl would never come up with this by herself. people make up stories. there are others behind this trying to harm him. >> he was banned from public office for abusing his position to help ruby, but he will now appeal. he insisted he was isn't and that the case was an attempt to remove him from public life. >> it is a very, very serious issue. a very, very political issue.

and i think that it will have an impact on the italian history. >> the verdict has divided public opinion. this woman said seven years is little. they should have given him even more. the political concern is that the verdict will deepen divisions and sharpen tension inside the governing coalition that he is part of at an economically fragile time for italy. >> the saga continues. now his base baratone can be heard at the cotton club in arlem.

honestly i have no idea how i got into opera. it kind of stumbled on me before i was an opera singer i played baseball. i was really good to the point i had professional teams looking at me. i got hurt. pera came to the rescue. i was pretty poor. my ambition is to get my family out of the poverty brim. i thought baseball would do it. unfortunately it did not happen. hopefully that this is the tick ote get out of it. the only thing that was available was a choir. the choir director could not stand me. he decided to give me voice lessons. he heard something. he transferred me to another teacher. that teacher told me i should

focus on opera. she saw potential in my voice. i fell in love with it when i did my first opera. i saw my mom out in the audience crying after singing. after that i knew that there was something about this field. cotton club was a center for everything that went on in the harlem renaissance. you talk about the fashion and the muse and i can the iterature and the artists. this was the rebirth of african american communities which needed it. we were put down for so long. we needed this movement. this club was right smack in the middle of it. it means a lot that i can come here and almost continue it.

i think that he is trying to introduce opera to a community that is not familiar in their terms, obviously. obviously in jazz music. i think he was trying to just speak the language to get us to get us to come and just to experience. for so long african americans have been put in a bubble of what we can and can't do. we can only play sports. we can only be hip-hop artists or basketball players or whatever. opera can definitely change the perception of how we view ourselves. think that it is amazing. >> clayton matthews on his extraordinary career change. you can continue to watch "bbc world news" for updates from around the world on our 24 hour

news network. check your local listings for ur number. >> make sense of international news -- at bbc.com/news. >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, newman's own foundation, giving all profits to charity and pursuing the common good for over 30 years, nd union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to understand the industry you operate in, working to nurture new ventures and help provide capital for key strategic decisions.

we offer expertise and tailored solutions in a wide range of industries. hat can we do for you? >> "bbc world news" was presented by kcet, los angeles.

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> ifill: the supreme court decided against striking down affirmative action today, opting instead for a narrow ruling that sends the dispute back to a lower court for a second look. good evening. i'm gwen ifill. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the newshour tonight, we get analysis from marcia coyle on that and other rulings today, plus a debate about what the high court's limited decision on affirmative action means for the future. >> ifill: then, n.s.a. leaker edward snowden remains on the run. from hong kong to moscow, to who knows where next, margaret warner looks at how the u.s. is trying to track him down. >> brown: ray suarez has our coverage of opening statements in the trial of george zimmerman, charged with second- degree murder in the shooting